music

In the new book “Making Mary Poppins: The Sherman Brothers, Walt Disney, and the Creation of a Classic Film” author and Disney historian Todd James Pierce traces the unlikely path that brought the Sherman brothers to Walt Disney’s attention and how their genius and emotional lives shaped the films’ songs, and surprising stories.

Rock and roll is not rock and roll without a beat. John Ligan’s new book “Backbeats: A History of Rock and Roll in Fifteen Drummers” is a journey through the history of rock and roll told through the lives of fifteen iconic drummers and their percussion rivals.

Since 2010 - Will Herems and Sarah LaDuke have wrapped up the year in music during the waning hours of each calendar year. They missed a couple of years for a couple of different reasons, but are here, this year, to share some songs with you.

Howard Jones’ groundbreaking 1985 album, Dream Into Action, peaked on the UK charts and cracked the US Top 10. It went on to spawn global hit singles, “Things Can Only Get Better” (which experienced a resurgence after being featured on an episode of Netflix’s Stranger Things) and “No One is to Blame” as well as “Life in One Day” and “Like to Get to Know You Well."

Named one of the Top 20 Guitarists of All Time by Rolling Stone, Richard Thompson is one of the world’s most critically acclaimed and prolific songwriters. In addition to his beloved catalog and in addition to many other honors - Thompson has received Lifetime Achievement Awards for Songwriting on both sides of the Atlantic.He’ll be in the WAMC region early next month, playing The Bardavon in Poughkeepsie, New York on November 7 and Stone Church in Brattleboro, Vermont on November 8.Will Hermes is a regular contributor to NPR, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and Pitchfork. He’s the author of “Love Goes to Buildings on Fire” and “Lou Reed: The King of New York.” His substack of music writing is at newmusicoldmusic.substack.com.Hermes spoke with Richard Thompson for WAMC.

Actor and musician Jeff Daniels has been in iconic movies such as Terms of Endearment, Dumb and Dumber, Good Night and Good Luck as well as the television series The Newsroom, and starred on Broadway in To Kill a Mockingbird and Blackbird. Daniels comes to the Towne Crier Cafe in Beacon on Sunday to perform his music at 7:30 pm.

This Friday, September 19, WAMC On the Road visits Assembly in Kingston, New York where Sarah LaDuke will host a broadcast recording for “WAMC Live in Concert” showcasing the dreamy and remarkable songwriter, harpist, vocalist, and music producer: Mikaela Davis.Davis will play 315 Thursdays - a summer concert series in Syracuse on (you guessed it!) Thursday, then the show in Kingston on Friday and followed-up by a Saturday concert at Lark Hall in Albany, New York and a Sunday gig at Stone Church in Brattleboro, Vermont.

As a solo artist and a founding member of Animal Collective, Noah Lennox has been making adventurous, generation-defining music for a quarter-century as Panda Bear. His newest album, “Sinister Grift” – his first solo record since 2019’s “Buoys,” came out in February of this year on British indie label Domino.Panda Bear is playing Woodsist Festival at Arrowood Farms in Accord, New York and he spoke with Will Hermes for WAMC.

Schenectady’s Museum of Innovation and Science is launching a new series of planetarium shows called Rockin’ the Dome. The show will pay tribute to the monsters of rock who visited the Electric City more than five decades ago.

Howard Jones’ groundbreaking 1985 album, Dream Into Action, peaked on the UK charts and cracked the US Top 10. It went on to spawn global hit singles, “Things Can Only Get Better” (which experienced a resurgence after being featured on an episode of Netflix’s Stranger Things) and “No One is to Blame” as well as “Life in One Day” and “Like to Get to Know You Well."